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City Tour of Deer Park
Simeon Henry West, a Yankee from Illinois, settled in this area and visualized
a city, recording a plat of the out lots of the town of Deer Park in December
1892. Although considered a statesman in Illinois, West became an aggressive
pioneer in Texas, stubbornly pursuing his dream of creating a city. Envisioning
the area to be an excellent location for a town, he named it Deer Park
after the large number of deer that roamed the Gulf plains. As settlers
arrived from the North to erect homes and establish farms, West built
a hotel and post office in 1893 and granted the Houston and Northern Railroad
Company a 100-foot strip of land across Deer Park. He began reserving
rights for water, street cars, telephone and electric utility lines and
naming streets. Luella is the only originally named street remaining today.
His dream of a town that was to be a farming and fruit producing community
had come true. However, when the flood of 1900 wiped out most of the homes,
crops and livestock of Deer Park, settlers returned to the north except
the Robert Lee Marsh family.
Deer Park dwindled down to almost nothing with even the post office discontinuing
service in 1919. By 1922, Deer Park had four houses, one little schoolhouse,
and an old hotel with a few scattered shacks along the railroad right-of-way.
Mr. West's vision was revitalized in 1928 when Shell Oil Company broke
ground on a new refinery. By 1938, Deer Park had forty-eight houses, a
school district, and had even welcomed President Franklin D. Roosevelt
as his train passed through the city in 1936. By 1940, the population
of Deer Park was 100 and had grown to 700 by 1948. The citizens of Deer
Park voted to incorporate Dec. 12, 1948. Several weeks later, Earl E.
Dunn became the first mayor and officiated over the first council meeting
of Feb. 7. The first city marshal was hired in 1950 and by 1960 the city's
population was 5,000 with a fire station, city hall, playground parks,
and independent water supply, and four major industries within the city
limits. In 1962, five acres of land were dedicated for a new public library.
By 1965, the city could no longer expand as it was surrounded by annexation
from Houston and other cities.
Deer Park celebrated its 100th birthday in February 1992. Mr. West's dream
of a "Community of Opportunity" has been realized. Today, Deer Park has
approximately 9,000 homes and more than 30,000 residents; a city hall;
a school district with 14 campuses; a library; community theater; municipal
court building; two fire stations; numerous parks and recreational facilities;
state-of-the-art water and sewer processing facilities; a post office;
several hotels; railroad; 14 major industries as well as several smaller
light industrial companies and a soon to be new police facility.
Deer Park Links
City of Deer Park
Deer Park Independent School District
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